CHAPTER EIGHT
Jimmy sped his Maserati into the ER parking lot, hopped out, and ran into the hospital.
He had to ask two different nurses, both of whom seemed more interested in flirting with the handsome young black man in the expensive suit than giving him information.
But he finally arrived at the room. He flung the door open and hurried inside.
He saw his stepmother standing at his baby brother’s bedside, but he was shocked to see his kid sister standing at Carmine’s bedside too. “I thought Ma said you were driving,” he said to her.
“I was,” Sophia responded. “But it was Carmine that saved our lives. We would have been roadkill if that Mack truck would have hit us.”
“A truck?” Jimmy’s heart dropped. “You’re okay?”
“Praise God, not a scratch on her,” Trina said as she put her arm around her daughter.
“Praise God!” Jimmy said so heartfelt that he pulled his baby sister into his arms too. They had different mothers, but they all had Reno as their father. Jimmy’s mother had died long ago, but Trina was his mother just like she was Carmine’s, Sophia’s, and Dommi’s, as far as he was concerned.
But when they stopped embracing, Jimmy quickly looked at Carmine.
“He’s okay too,” Trina said. “Don’t worry. We’re just waiting on the test results, but he’s good.”
“Then why is he passed out?”
“They had to give him a sedative. He was convinced Sophie had died in that car crash and he wouldn’t stop screaming her name until they ran to her room and rushed her to his room. They he was convinced that she had to have had internal damage and that she would drop dead at any moment.”
Jimmy laughed and shook his head as he looked at his unusual brother. “He knows too much.”
“Yes Lord,” said Trina.
“Did anybody call Dommi?” Jimmy asked.
“I called him just after I called you,” Trina said. “He’s on his way.”
“What about Daddy?” Sophia asked.
“I texted him five times already,” Trina said, “and I called him more times than that. But he never answered.”
“Where is he?” Sophia asked.
“Damn if I know. I called the PaLargio and nobody’s seen him since he left for lunch. But wait till I get my hands on his ass.”
Jimmy’s heart dropped. He knew he should tell Trina every time he caught his father in compromising situations, but he never did.
As he and his father grew closer down through the years, loyalty to his old man trumped everything with Jimmy.
He loved Trina, and they were especially close.
But Reno was his Dad. He couldn’t go against his Pops.
“You heard from him, Jimmy?” Trina asked him.
“Who me? Sure haven’t. I’m just glad Soph and Carmine’s okay.”
“Yeah. Me too,” Trina said. But she knew he knew more than he was telling. When it came to Reno, Jimmy always knew more.